Rack system

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus, system, and method of use for a storage racking system.

BACKGROUND

This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/187,164, filed Jun. 15, 2009.

The present invention is used in warehouse racking systems to facilitate racked storage of materials. The invention can be used on existing warehouse racking systems or employed in new warehouse racking systems.

Warehouse racking systems have existed for years. Such racking systems are designed to allow a warehouse operator to maximize the use of the volume of storage area in the warehouse. The square footage of storage space in a warehouse can be extended dramatically by adding racking systems. Effectively, the square footage of a storage facility can be increased multiple times by adding vertical multiple of storage area by use of racking systems.

One of the problems with racking systems is that there needs to be passage ways for the operation of equipment such as a lift truck for storing and removing materials from the racks. In this regard, pallets are a common way of handling a unit of storage materials. In other words, the pallet defines the footprint or area of a unit of storage volume. The warehouse operator or manufacturer can define the height of the materials, packages, or products stored on the pallet. If a uniform height of material can be defined, the palletized material defines a uniform volume of materials to be stored on the rack. The racking system can be designed to accommodate this uniform volume of storage.

By way of review, a rack system has been developed which minimizes the space used by warehouse equipment to place and remove pallets of material from racking systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,170, to Azzopardi, licensed to the assignee of the present application, places racks at spaced apart locations to maximize the use of the storage space. The Azzopardi patent effectively eliminates any passage between facing horizontal supports. The supports are spaced apart a sufficient distance to allow a mast of a forklift to pass there between. However, the horizontal supports are also spaced closely enough so that the pallets rest on the supports without any additional unused space. In other words, except for the rack structure, the entire volume of the racking system may be used for storage. The subject matter of the Azzopardi patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

On occasion, a pallet may be slightly irregular, have a non-standard size, or somehow be out of condition. It would be useful to provide a structure to provide additional support for pallets under these circumstances.

There is a need to balance the cost of providing the additional support, weight involved in providing additional attachments, other engineering considerations such as dimensions, shapes and locations of such supports, as well as cost. It would be desirable to provide an additional support while managing these other engineering considerations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a rack system for use in supporting pallets of material such as cartons, boxes or the like, on horizontally extending load arms and support rails carried on vertical support structures, a space being provided between opposing load arms and inner rails to facilitate movement of a lift truck mast there between, the elevational view of FIG. 1 being extended in a plan as shown in the subsequent figures;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial fragmentary view of the left side of FIG. 1 showing a pair of pallets resting on a corresponding load arms with an edge of the pallets positioned approximate to an outer rail carried on neighboring load arms as shown in more detail in FIG. 4;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial fragmentary view of the right side of FIG. 1 showing a pair of pallets which is slightly narrower than the pallets shown on the left side of FIG. 1 in which the edge of the pallets obtains some support from an extender tab attached to the corresponding outer rail since the pallet edge does not extend to the outer rail;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of one side of the rack system shown in FIG. 1, for example the side shown in FIG. 3, the top plan view showing the inner rail, outer rail, the corresponding load arms, and extender tabs attached to the outer rail and spaced between the load arms, with the extender tabs projecting away from the outer rail towards the inner rail to provide additional support to pallets which might otherwise not rest on at least a portion of the outer rail and to provide additional support for those pallets at least in part resting on the outer rail;

FIG. 5A is a top plan view similar to that as shown in FIG. 4 illustrating only the outer rail and the relative dimension and spacing of the extender tabs;

FIG. 5B is a side elevational view of the illustration in FIG. 5A, showing the corresponding spacing; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along lines 6-6 in FIG. 5B showing the outer rail in cross-section having a generally vertically oriented portion and a horizontally oriented portion formed at generally a right angle relative to one another with an extender tab positioned below the horizontal portion and attached thereto, generally by welding, the extender tab being attached to the outer rail at the time of fabrication and before installation and or after installation of the rack system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While the present disclosure may be susceptible to embodiment in different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and herein will be described in detail, embodiments with the understanding that the present description is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the disclosure and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 1, a rack system 20 is shown. It should be understood that the rack system shown is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to be limiting. The rack system can be extended in all three directions to facilitate placement of numerous units of material. Additionally, while only one level of vertical rack is shown, multiple levels of vertical rack as well as placement on the ground level 22 can be achieved. The rack system 20 includes vertical support structures 24, generally horizontally oriented load arms 26 and upper supports 28. The rack system 20 is designed for retaining numerous palletized storage units 30. The palletized storage units are commonly comprised of a pallet 34 on which a container 36 or plurality of cartons or boxes resting on an upper surface 38 on the pallet. The lower surface of the pallet 40 rests on an upper surface 42 of the corresponding load arms 26. The palletized storage units can be handled using known equipment and techniques.

The load arms 26 are attached at intercepting attachments 46 and extend inwardly towards opposing load arms. A space 50 is provided between spaced apart faces 52 of opposing load arms 26, 26 attached to the vertical supports 24 at a corresponding level. A pairing of pallets 34, 34 can be place on the load arms at this level to provide a generally horizontal level resting place for the palletized units 30. The space 50 is provided to allow a vertically oriented mast of a loading device such as a lift truck to access the area between the load arms 26.

It should be noted that while multiple pallets are retained on the corresponding pair of load arms 26 as shown. This is the configuration as shown and described in the Azzopardi patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,170 of which the assignee of the present application is a licensee. However, individual pallets may also be stored in this rack system 20 configurations with a single pallet extending between opposed load arms 26.

With reference to FIG. 4, a top plan view of one side of the rack system 20 is shown. For example, the right side of the rack shown in FIG. 1 (60) is shown in a top plan view of FIG. 4. FIG. 4 shows the load arms 26 being spaced apart being attached to the vertical structures 24 and spaced apart in a horizontal direction. Additionally, at inner areas relative to the vertical structures 24 and outer rail 70 extends between neighboring load arms 26. The outer rail 70 is attached to each of the load arms by mounting clips, welding, fasteners or other appropriate means. Similarly, an inner rail 76 is attached proximate to the face 52 of each load arm 26 generally spaced away from the outer rail 70.

Pallets resting on the rack system generally rest on the inner rail 76, outer rails 70 and may rest on corresponding load arms 26. With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the pallet configurations shown on the left side (FIG. 2) and right side (FIG. 3) are shown in an enlarged illustration. For example, the enlarged illustration in FIG. 2 shows the left side of FIG. 1 in an enlarged area near the attachment intersection 46 where the lower arm 46 attaches to the vertical support structure 24. The outer rail 70 can be seen with a generally upstanding vertical portion 80 and a generally horizontal portion 82. The bottom 40 of the pallet 34 rests on top of the generally horizontal portion, horizontal portion 82. With such a configuration, the pallet is generally well supported by the inner rail 76 (not shown) outer rails 70 and may be supported intermittently by the load arms 26.

In contrast, FIG. 3 shows an enlarged side elevational view of the pallet on the right side of FIG. 1 proximate to the attachment intersection 46. As will be described in greater detail below, an extender tab or tab 90 is positioned under the horizontal portion 82 of the outer rail 70. As such, even though the edge 88 of the pallet 34 does not rest on the horizontal portion 82 of the corresponding outer rail 70, an extender tab 90 (see FIG. 4) extending from the outer rail 70 will likely provide support for the pallet 34. Absence of the tab 90 could result in the pallet generally only being supported by the inner rail 76 and, perhaps, intermittent load arms 26. While such loading should be sufficient in most situations, provision of the tabs 90 provides extra added support for the load of the pallet.

With reference to FIGS. 4, 5A, 5B and 6, the tabs 90 are shown and described. The extender tab 90 is shown as a generally square piece of metal that has been attached to the underside 92 of the horizontal portion 82 of the outer rail 70 (see FIG. 6). The tab 90 in the drawing is provided by way of illustration and not limitation. While an extension of approximately 2-3 inches is shown in FIGS. 5A, the tab 90 may be longer or shorter depending on the circumstances. Additionally, the shape of the extender tab may be altered depending on the circumstances associated with the rack system. It is anticipated that a variety of shapes and dimensions may be used with the extender tab or “tab” to provide the equivalent structure and function. Additionally, the exposed periphery 96 of each tab may be formed in a manner that facilitates an easy placement of a pallet on the tab without interfering with the pallet. In this regard positioning of the tab 90 below the horizontal portion 82 of the rail 70 helps provide some clearance below the pallet to prevent the pallet from hanging up on a tab.

The tabs 90 are useful to provide additional support at positions intermediate neighboring pairs of load arms. A horizontally extending dimension 98 may be approximately half the width 100 of the horizontal portion 82 of the rail 70. This dimension can be increased or decreased depending on the circumstances. Additionally, while one tab spaced generally midway between neighboring load arms 26 as shown in FIG. 4, multiple tabs may be attached between neighboring arms 26.

In use, a rack system 20 may be constructed with intermediate tabs 90 as shown in the figures. One or more tabs 90 are generally attached to an underside 92 of a horizontal portion 82 of the outer rail 70. The tabs can be fabricated and attached to the rail 70 during construction of the rack structures or may be attached after a rack structure is installed. In the regard, the tabs may be used in a “retro fit” condition. This would allow users of a preexisting rack system to benefit from the discoveries of the present invention.

When a lift truck positions a pair of pallets for placement on a corresponding sections of the load arms and rails, the tabs will help to support intermediate portions of a pallet which may not extend to the outer rail 70. Additionally, the condition of pallets can be unpredictable. For example, design variations and material irregularities may be found in some pallets, users may inadvertently use non-standard pallets and other pallets may be damaged or other unexpected circumstances. The tabs 90 help increase the likelihood that a variety of pallets conditions and characteristics can be accommodated in the rack system.

Additionally, the tabs may be added to the rack system in a retro-fit application even while portions of the rack system are loaded with material. In this regard, the tabs can be welded to the outer rail by merely shifting loads. Shifting loads would eliminate a load directly above a weld spot in the interest of safety while welding. However, once the extender tab is welded into position the load can be shifted to provide an opening in a neighboring spot for welding an extender tab in the neighboring location. In contrast, retro-fitting of a new inner rail or of an intermediate rail between the outer rail and inner rail would be a significant expenditure of time, effort, money and, perhaps may be cost prohibitive. In such a situation, material would need to be removed from the entire storage area to allow placement of the lengthy sections. 

1. A rack system for retaining pallets, the system comprising: vertical support structures; generally horizontal load arms extending from the vertical support structures; a space defined between opposed pairs of horizontal load arms; and inner rail attached to a face of each of the opposed load arms and extending between neighboring load arms carried on a vertical support structure; an outer load rail attached to neighboring load arms generally proximate to an intersection attachment of a horizontal load arm with a corresponding vertical support; and at least one extender tab positioned between neighboring load arms and extending from the outer load rail towards the corresponding inner load rail.
 2. A rack system of claim 1 further comprising: the outer load rail having a horizontal portion and a vertical portion, the extender tab being attached to the horizontal portion.
 3. The rack system of claim 1, further comprising: the extender tab being attached to an underside of the outer load rail;
 4. The rack system of claim 1, further comprising: an extender tab spaced between neighboring pairs of load arms and attached to an underside of the corresponding outer load rail, a dimension approximately equal to a horizontal width dimension of the corresponding rail. 